


Tonic

by midnightdiddle (gooseberry)



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alcohol, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Master & Servant, Mourning, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-26
Updated: 2009-05-26
Packaged: 2019-02-01 04:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12697743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooseberry/pseuds/midnightdiddle
Summary: "You're not used to wine, are you?"Guy's pretty sure Jade's laughing at him, but he's not sure. Mostly because Jade's face is really still, and he's wearing those glasses he's always wearing. Guy thinks about it, wonders if he could take Jade's glasses off. Wonders how drunk he must be if he's thinking about that."Luke couldn't drink," he says. He doesn't think he's slurring much. And his words are all in the right places: he can taste them. Apples. "The doctors-- Doctors said it might, his memory." He spins a hand next to his head, feels his fingers catch in his hair. He tugs a few strands.--Jade/Guy, w(h)ine.  Post-game, pre-epilogue-thing.  Guy doesn't know how to drink, because Luke never learned how.





	Tonic

"You're not used to wine, are you?"

Guy's pretty sure Jade's laughing at him, but he's not sure. Mostly because Jade's face is really still, and he's wearing those glasses he's always wearing. Guy thinks about it, wonders if he could take Jade's glasses off. Wonders how drunk he must be if he's thinking about that.

"Luke couldn't drink," he says. He doesn't think he's slurring much. And his words are all in the right places: he can taste them. Apples. "The doctors-- Doctors said it might, his memory." He spins a hand next to his head, feels his fingers catch in his hair. He tugs a few strands.

"So you never drank because Luke never drank?" Yeah, Jade sounds amused. Too amused. Like he did when Luke would be stupid and blind and just so fucking dumb in all his really hopeful ways.

"Was a servant. I was a servant." The words don't taste like apples anymore. Guy swallows-- it feels like there's something on his tongue in the back of his mouth. He drinks more wine, then licks his lips. Tries to taste his words. "If he couldn't--"

"Then of course you couldn't," Jade finishes for him smoothly, and Guy nods. His head feels heavy, like he got knocked by the hilt of Van's sword. Heavy, and dull. Maybe there's a ringing there, too. And god, he's dizzy, feels like the world's falling out beneath him.

It feels like Hod.

"I don't," he starts to say, but he can't figure out how to say, _like this_. He sets the plain, ugly cup on the ground, and tries to stand up. Figures it out sometime when he's on his knees, and he has to hold onto the tree, but that's okay. The tree's feeling pretty stable, better than this world-turned-Hod-turned- _My Master's dead and I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go_ -fuckknowsall.

"It's his birthday tomorrow--"

"Shut up!" Guy snarls, and the world's swaying too fast, spinning beneath him. He wants to punch Jade in the mouth, slam him to the ground and hit him and hit him and _hit him_ , until the grass is a bloody mess and Jade's head, his stupid fucking smart _head_ is split, because Luke's been gone for years too long, and Guy doesn't know what to do, and Guy never learned to drink wine because Guy never learned how to do anything without Luke. "Shut _up_ , I--"

Jade's grabbing his arm, pulling Guy, and it takes Guy a moment to realize that Jade's holding him up, keeping him from falling onto the ground or the tree or Hod, and Guy never thought he'd be a sentimental drunk; there's too much to be sentimental about, all the bits and pieces that scatter in all the things they did and didn't do.

He hates Jade's glasses.

"If you can't drink like an adult," Jade says, and it sounds too much like all the times Jade admonished Luke for being a kid, for acting like he was seven, not seventeen. Guy swallows, tastes vomit in the back of his throat.

"Forget it," he says, "I'm drunk." Because it's good enough as an excuse, good enough for his impotence in everything, for not being able to keep a kid alive and happy. So ineffectual. He swallows again, rotten apples in his words, and says, "I--"

Jade kisses him then, sharp and fast, and Guy's never really kissed anyone. Never had anyone to kiss, because the girls still make his heart race in all the wrong ways, and the boys are all too _boys_ , and he hasn't really had anything to kiss anyone for in the past few years, anyway.

Jade kisses like he talks, like he moves. Looks like he's careless, looks like he's slow and limp and a little weak, but it hurts. There are teeth, Guy thinks, and he's pretty sure he'll taste blood the next time he swallows. Jade kisses harsh and mean and way too sharp, like all his way too sharp words. Guy feels his mouth open, feels Jade's tongue against his, and yeah, he's tasting blood.

When Jade pulls away, there's blood in the corner of his mouth. Guy would wipe it away, or tell Jade too, but he's falling back against the tree, sliding down to the ground. He's dizzy, the world's still spinning, and yeah, maybe he's too drunk.

"Put your head down," Jade says, sounds like he's commanding. Sounds like a general, or something, like someone who's taking charge, who's serious. He's pressing on the back of Guy's head, too, so Guy drops his head between his knees, breathes deep through his nose. Still dizzy.

"Just breathe," Jade says, and when Guy's breathing too heavy, watching the dirt beneath him swell and burst, he thinks he hears Jade say, "I'll give him a birthday present."

But maybe he's just too drunk.


End file.
